WEEK FIVE - Investigation

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (5)

friday (?) survivors Friday comes, and with it, the return of alarms for all the late-risers out there; those up before 9:00 AM will have an alarm-free morning. This one thankfully is a pretty gentle duet, the soft keys jangling you awake. It's not as invasive as some of the previous alarms, as once it ends, it just ends. It doesn't keep playing until you leave your room. If you check your datapad again, however, it will play the song again. It seems it's beckoning you somewhere, somehow, and you feel drawn to explore the ship, however anxious you may be. Tentatively, you leave your safe haven. taken list profiles setting rulebook ENTER COMMAND_

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pool; 9am

[antagonize]

[He's an early riser, so no alarm for him. He does, however, head to the pool after 9 AM. Anything strange around here?]

[al2955]

[Well...the pool water's no longer clear but instead a blood red color. But that's probably just food coloring, right?]

[antagonize]

[... Oh, jeez.

He's crouching by the pool to get a closer look. Is there going to be anything that marks the red color as anything other than koolaid, or is he going to have to like, uh. Dip his hand in the water and sniff it?? This is true detective work.]

[al2955]

[There seems to be something large at the bottom of the pool a few feet away from where he's crouching, but the water's too opaque for him to make out clearly what it is.

Make Bruce proud, Jason. Drink the Kool-Aid.]

[antagonize]

[WOW. NO. HE'S NOT DRINKING THE SUSPICIOUS KOOL-AID!!

But is there a pool net somewhere around here? Or some other item long enough to pull that thing towards him? He's not touching the water unless it's absolutely necessary, okay.]

[al2955]

[The pool net's missing.

With his detective senses, he might be able to spot something suspiciously pool-net shaped floating in the middle of the pool out of his reach.]

[antagonize]

[Ughhhhhh. Why this????

Guess he has no choice but to bite the bullet and take a dip in the kool-aid. Goodbye, clean clothes. Time to grab that shit that shouldn't be inside the pool.]

[al2955]

[As he dives in and gets closer, he'll notice that the large object is a body. He'll have some difficulty pulling her out, as for some reason she's much heavier than she should be, especially towards the bottom. Unfortunately, the blood in the water around her is thick enough that he won't be able to make out much more besides her identity until he pulls her out.

Carta Issue is dead.]

[antagonize]

[Ah. So it wasn't kool-aid.

That's great.

He's just going to stare at the corpse for a second after pulling it out, and then—]

Aw, fucking hell. We couldn't go another week without murdering someone?!

[R.I.P. to the days without incident counter.

Because that is the true victim of this week, right??? Priorities. But he's yelling loud enough for anybody who's close to hear.]

[breakshot]

[ WHILE THIS IS HAPPENING

at the very same time Machias is high tailing it out of the art storage room. What's wrong? Did he witness something most terrible?! Is he about to meet a terrible fate?

Maybe. There's a giant snake chasing after him and he's yelling and cursing Jessie at the top of his lungs. He's going to run right down the lower deck, straight through the gym, and finally to the pool WAIT WHY IS IT RED HIT THE BRAKES

Yeah. He hit 'em too late, so he's going to topple right in like a giant bloody cannonball. Enjoy, Jason! ]

[poisonsting]

[FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, Jessie probably ordered Arbok to give Machias a big hug, so Arbok looks kind of happy! Jessie is his master and following her innocent order would be a great way to serve her, and also Machias has it pretty rough so maybe he needs a hug.

Arbok manages to turn instead of diving into the pool, though, and he's left there looking kind of embarrassed for Machias and looking over at Jason Todd with a look that can only be described as challenging.]

Chawbark?

[antagonize]

[Wow.

This sure is happening!

Jason is going to, uh. Watch Machias topple into the water like a cannonball. Glance at Arbok when he slithers in. Stare. Wave at Arbok like there isn't a corpse on the ground.]

Sup.

[And then proceed to inspect the corpse while he still can. No body discovery announcement means no perky robots carting our dead person away, right? Probably. Who knows. What can he even tell from looking over the body right now?]

[monsieurchatastrophe]

[hay guys what's going in this thread

adrien was minding his own business when he saw Machias being chased by Arbok (...why) and decided someone should proobably do something??? he's too late to help anyone when he runs in, but he does come in at just the right time to see machias, Jason, a kool-aid pool and a dead... body...]

Oh no. Are they--?

[why won't everyone stop murdering]

[al2955]

[The immediate thing Jason will notice is that there's a hole near the top of Carta's forehead; it looks like that must have been the source of all the blood. Two dumbbells have been tied to her feet using resistance bands from the gym. Her body is cool, though it's impossible to tell whether that's from the temperature of the pool or the time of death.

As Machias flounders around in the pool, he may notice that there seems to be something else at the bottom. Keep on swimming?]

[breakshot]

[ Yeah, Machias is surfacing up and holy shit there's blood everywhere it's all over him and he's going to spit out whatever kool aid he accidentally got a mouthful of and CURSE LOUDLY. ]

Son of a-- WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT WOMAN?

[ At least he can actually swim. Thanks, Instructor Neithardt and your crazy Manway Method. He's splashing, splashing, and cursing the fact his military uniform is ruined YET AGAIN and-- Holy shit, Jason. IS THAT THE BODY. ]

... Oh. Oh Goddess, tell me it's not really... [ Let's wipe off those frames and squint is that really-- yes. yes it is. ] What the hell happened in here?

[ He's about to swim over and check except something catches the corner of his eye, leading him to look down. Wait. What's that? ... Ugh, does he have to? Time to dive in. ]

[poisonsting]

[No, Jason, not 'sup. Arbok look away pointedly because he hates you as much as Jessie does, it's only natural.

But he'll nod at Adrien and offer a 'chaw!' before slithering into the pool. He likes Adrien, after all, but now he's worried about Machias. Why is he diving back in? Is he going to drown? Whatever. Arbok slithers right into the pool and disappears beneath the red color to help Machias with his efforts.

It's not creepy at all.]

[antagonize]

[Wow. Rudest snake ever????????

While everyone else freaks out over the dead body or goes on a scuba diving expedition, Jason is going to take a closer look at that hole on Carta's forehead. Is there anything he can tell from it at this time, or...?]

Yup. She's dead as a doornail. [Seriously, people. Stop murdering.] And our killer of the week is going to pay my dry cleaning bill.

[You know. With their life. They're going to pay for his dirty clothes with their life.]

[monsieurchatastrophe]

Arbok, no!

[its belated because the snake is already in the water after machias, and adrien just winces. he's... pretty sure... arbok wouldn't hurt machias, and Jason is right there (albeit with a dead body) so ... he looks around the pool to see if anything else is obviously off before offering:]

Do you need help getting her out?

[he doesn't want to touch a dead body ... at all... but between the dumbbells and the "corpses are fucking heavy"/fucking pool and whatever machias is doing, he should definitely offer]

[al2955]

[With Jason's experience in firearms, he'll likely notice that the hole in Carta's head is consistent with a bullet hole.

Machias and Arbok will discover a gun. It's lying a few feet away from where Carta's body was found, towards the middle of the pool rather than the edge.

Adrien will notice that there's a dark patch of blood by the edge of the pool, almost right above where Carta's body was lying within the pool.]

[breakshot]

[ Machias is just getting around to picking up that gun when

He realizes he's not alone. And immediately starts to yell only to realize he's still underwater. Enjoy accidentally inhaling more kool-aid, Machias. He's just going to quickly surface now quickly scramble away and start hacking out that bloody water and shouting in Arbok's direction. ]

Don't do that! You're going to kill someone!! Ugh... [ Is it over. He's just going to hold up what he found to Jason and Adrien. Carefully. ] I found something.

[ What kind of gun is it, anyway? Let's have a look. And... let's take another glance around the pool bottom real quick, because if he's going to check whether or not it's been used it'd probably be better to check after getting out. Unless Arbok wants to take the job and search around!! ]

[antagonize]

[He's shaking his head at Adrien's offer.]

I'm not making you touch a body, but thanks. How about you take a look around and see if anything else is off?

[Look. He might be a douchebag, but he's not going to make a 15-year-old kid help him move a dead body. That's just Too Much.

That said, Machias is holding up the gun just after he identifies gunshot on Carta's forehead. That's... convenient.]

She got shot in the head. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's the gun her killer used.

[Come to think of it, didn't Carta's profile list a gun as her item? Could that be it?]

[monsieurchatastrophe]

[he's definitely relieved at being freed from touching dead bodies (ew), so he just nods and goes to check out that blood puddle. is it just the puddle? is there anything else remarkable about or around it? a single shoe print???

he does question:]

Why would they bother to sink her if they'd already shot her?

[like... it's a pool not a lake they'd find her eventually??]

[al2955]

[The gun looks like a semi-automatic pistol.

No shoe prints, just a patch of blood. There's some water around it as well, but the blood's darker here than it is in the pool.]

[breakshot]

While we're at it, our killer won't be covering just one person's expenses now. This is a mess.

[ Machias is hauling himself out of the pool and much like Jason he's utterly drenched and looks like bloody murder. And his uniform? Is once again ruined. While he's at it, he's going over to Jason first and offering some help with the body before examining the gun. He's old enough to poke bodies. Unless Jason wants to go for a dip with the victim, but holding onto them like that in the pool can't possibly be comfortable. ]

... Let's help her out of there. [ There's a quiet, serious look at the victim for a brief moment. Then he offers a hand to help them out. ] If she's been shot, we should confirm that was the gun used too. There should be empty casing present if so.

[antagonize]

[He's spent enough time in the nasty ass pool to last him one lifetime, so no thanks. He'll let Machias help him out, and hopefully they'll be able to put the corpse down somewhere they can take a better look before the robots come collect the "evidence".]

The body's pretty cold, but I've got no idea if it's from taking a dip in the pool of it's because she's been dead for a while. Obfuscating the time of death might be the reason they sunk her. Or, it could be something else.

[No way to tell at this point. Assuming they've successfully set the body down somewhere, he's going to want to quickly check for any additional injuries on Carta.]

Unless the killer picked it up or kicked it into the pool. [But if this is the murder weapon, there should be some evidence that it was discharged...] Carta Issue's profile listed a handgun as her item. Even if it's not the murder weapon, this might be it.